


Hello

by I_Am_Titanium



Series: This is a really weird town [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: BFFs, Because they are just so darn cute, Bobbi is everyone's big sister, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Friends to Lovers, High School AU, I haven't really decided if they should be together, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Lincoln Slade is a jerk but what's new right, Nerd Bobbi To Kickass Bobbi, Or not, Songfic, Sort Of, Thanks to Nat, Underground Fight Club, because why not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-02-24 15:45:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13216932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Am_Titanium/pseuds/I_Am_Titanium
Summary: New to this little town and school due to her father's business transfer, Jemma tried her best to blend in. There were a lot to deal with: creepy bullies, out-of-town family, and her best friend being a kickass ninja after tramatized by the exact punk who had been harassing her ever since she arrived. But, you know, aside from those, what else could go wrong?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Lionel Richie's "Hello" got me here. A High School AU seems to do the justice. And I just can't abandon the idea of sassy Bobbi until I realize I don't need to. There's always an antagonist, and Lincoln Slade just had to keep popping back up and he is really upseting me lately so here we go.
> 
> It's a really weird story, in my opinion. Why would I add underground fight club in the first place? Why is this even happening in a small town? Bobbi's such a San Diego girl!
> 
> Maybe I'm a little bit crazy. That's why.
> 
> But I still hope your guys enjoy. Kudos and comments and prompts are all welcome and appreciated!

"I thought California rains less than ten times a year!" The brown-hair man held his briefcase over his head as a shelter, English accent so rare around here it was almost unintelligible to the locals, other hand on his hip as he stood worriedly and watched from not far away. The rain poured down from heaven and hit a pool in front of the house before slashing all over, the sound of it almost deafening.

"It’s just bad luck, sir!" The truck driver came out of the vehicle and hurried to the back of the truck to direct other workers to cover the unloaded pieces of furniture with bright-yellow canvas together. For caution’s sake, he boarded the trunk to inventory the stock again.

"We must move in before my daughter starts in school. Can’t wait to meet new friends, can you, Jemma?" The man shouted at the girl standing under the roof, but whether unintentionally or not, she didn’t hear him.

Rain flowed in under the roof with the chill of autumn wind, wetting the hem of Jemma’s skirt. She stood still as if hypnotized and looked up at the sky, not certain what she was searching for.

She was familiar with rain. Everybody knows a London with endless rains and gentlemen with umbrellas to prevent sudden embarrassment. But in here? It seemed like some absurd anachronism, some silver in solid gold where they shouldn’t exist. Everything just didn’t feel right.

Of course, it was never her intention to move. It was common for a businessman like her father to move about, but to America? Well, this was a little too much. Not that Jemma objected this change intensely. It was California, after all, a paradise full of sunshine (unfortunately this impression now altered as well). But starting a new life in a different town in a different country was never easy for any teenagers.

Intermittent voice could be heard in the rain, capturing her attention. She turned, trying to locate the origin of it, anything that could distract her from whatever was on her mind.

"Hey, Phoebes, hurry up! I promised your mom to drop your off before 4! And you can’t drink the water falling from the sky!"

It belonged to a girl around her age. There were giggles of a little boy.

"And you, Nadia! Is there anyone home? Is the key under the doormat or in the mailbox? Listen to me, where is it?"

The voice and a silhouette unorthodoxly wide in shoulders approached. Jemma tilted her head, interested, watching a blonde girl bending slightly, holding up a faded green coat to cover two children that were not older than four around her, walking past the house in this position as fast as possible.

She shot a quick glimpse at Jemma on the steps when she passed by. She looked not much older than herself, jawline almost too firm for a female, what looked like a newly-added wound on the side of the jaw. Her eyes glimmered light-blue in the lowly-lit weather. Her first impression was a little cold, but then her lips twirled in the most unnoticeable way. It wasn’t a dazzling smile, but warm enough to rid all heavy clouds overhead.

She said nothing, even pushing two children forward with more force.

"Who is the one standing in front of the house, Bo bo?" The little girl’s question passed all the way to Jemma before their silhouette completely disappeared.

"New friend, Nadia." Jemma heard the girl murmured. "New friend."


	2. First Day! Yay!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First day at a new school is always exciting... Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is this too soon? Personally speaking I can't make friends this fast but Bobbi and Jemma seemed to hit it off quite smoothly in the show so I figured why not?
> 
> ...It's still a little weird. Is it weird? Let me know if it's weird.
> 
> And I really hate Lincoln Slade. I mean really. If you don't know why, you should google Phantom Rider and see what he'd done to Bobbi. It's really unimaginable and how it fucked over Bobbi's entire life. She's stronger after that, yes, but it's still... man I hate that plot.

The first day at school was way tougher than Jemma anticipated. Yes, she used to go to "elite boarding school", but this public high school in town was smaller and with fewer students, which meant…

"Who is she? Never seen her around."

"Quite pretty, though."

"Heard she’s a Brit."

"How far do you think she can go down the hallway without trippin’?"

…Yep, she’d be the center of everything.

Staring at her without any subtlety, as she soon discovered, was easy to handle. Three or four boys gathering in front of classroom doors chatting would turned around and wolf-whistled at her, or tripped her over and pretended it was an accident.

Despite her best manner, Jemma was on the brink of freaking out after a whole morning’s harassment. As a result, when she was sorting out her textbooks in front of her closet after stalling for almost fifteen minutes, waiting for everyone to go to the cafeteria for lunch, and a hand fell on her shoulder, she turned fiercely to shake down the hand, and burst out with all the accumulated anger.

"Does anyone in this hellhole know how to respect a lady, your thugs—" She could only cursed the worst word in her vocabulary before she froze, the other half of the sentence stuck in the throat.

Seven seniors who looked like they just came from Hercules’s studio stood before her, absolutely much more ferocious than any previous boys who pulled pranks. The leading boy dressed in white T-shirt and jeans (why would anyone dress in white jeans?!) was a head taller than her, the materials of his clothing looking suspicious. He had a old scar on his left face which looked like a scratch of nails. Nevertheless, despite his weird taste in fashion, you would not want to call him a "thug". Not in the face, at least.

"I am so sorry, your majesty, I think you may’ve gotten to the wrong place." The boy in white spoke with a faint midwestern accent, his voice low and slightly floating toward the end of the sentences, making Jemma back up a step to bump into the closet behind her, her hair standing on their ends with no reason. "See, people in this 'hellhole' you’ve spoken of ain’t have (or should I say 'possess'?) the same manners you're used to dealing with, but then again, I believe 'when in Rome, do as a Roman do' is universal across English-speaking country and whatnot."

He smiled. Whether he meant to comfort or to intimidate, he only accomplished the latter one. "And what we Roman do here—"

"—Is to get your and your ghosty sidekicks’ asses out of here, Slade." A somewhat familiar voice rang beside her, sounding like music from heaven in Jemma’s ears. Somebody stepped up in front of her, separating her from the boy. "I was gonna say you stoop so low as to threaten girls, but who am I kidding? This has always been your grade."

Jemma stared up nervously, just in time to catch the other to turn her head and gave her a reassuring look. To be honest, she was not surprised when she recognized her as the girl that passed her by with two kids yesterday. What she was really surprised at was how tall she could be when she was not bending, even an inch taller than the boy called Slade. And now she wore a pair of glasses with black frames, looking more like a pedant instead of the neighbor girl before.

"Ah, Barbara." Slade’s tone and face remained surprisingly still as if he were wearing a mask. He even stopped his stirring gang behind him and continued without hurry. "I’m always pleased to meet you, even when the situation is less so."

"I’m pleased to tell you that makes one of us." The sarcasm in Barbara’s tone grew thicker. "Whichever kind of victim you’re planning to turn this girl to, of bullying or even worse, I will not let you do it."

"How do you hope to stop me, Barbara?" Slade tilted his head to the other side, his wicked smile only growing wider. "You can’t even defend yoursel—"

"Fuck off." Barbara interrupted in a light voice.

Jemma was surprised at the sudden change of air (yeah, this girl was full of surprises). They were still having a staredown, but Jemma swore the right little finger of Barbara in front of her twitch the slightest.

"Get. The. Fuck. Out. Of. Here. Now." Barbara repeated every word. "Before things get ugly."

"Oh my Ghost, Barbara, you’re still adorably unchanged." Slade wasn’t impressed. "I think I can take the consequence—"

"What is happening here?"

The situation was so tense that the sudden burst of the fourth party startled Jemma, who hardly held back a cry. A teacher in white coat (biology teacher?) hurried their direction from the other end of the hallway. She was in her sixtieth but her pace was steady, white hair brushed and her whole body proving her mettle.

Nobody moved.

"Explain, Ms. Morse." The teacher walked to them, asking by name.

"Nothing happened, Dr. Calvin," Barbara replied dryly, "right, Slade?"

"Yes, Dr. Calvin, nothing happened." Slade imitated her tone perfectly and led his goons away.

Doctor turned to Barbara. "If you ever get yourself in any kinds of trouble, Ms. Morse…"

"I promise I didn’t, Wilma." Barbara put up her hand in surrender. "If I did, I promise I’d ask for help immediately."

"Good." Dr. Calvin turned sideways to eye Jemma up and down. "Are you new here?"

Jemma nodded meekly.

"I’m looking forward to see you in the class this afternoon, miss." Dr. Calvin nodded at her, who replied with a stiff smile, and walked away, too.

There were only Jemma and her savior on the hallway.

"I really cannot express how grateful I am, well, Barbara Morse?" Jemma let out a relieved breath, looking up as the now-familiar girl grinned and turned around to face her.

"Bobbi." She replied, pushing her glasses up a little. "My friends call me Bobbi."

Jemma froze for a moment. Okay, that went well.

"I never catch your name, though, little one." Bobbi backed up and gestured toward where the cafeteria was. Two of them started walking.

"Simmons." Jemma replied. "Jemma Simmons. And you can call me Jemma." She paused, but finally asked the question that was bothering her, "are you related to Samuel Morse—"

"—in any way?" Bobbi burst into laughing. It was a rich and warm sound, and all Jemma could do was to look up at her face in awe, "actually, no, but it’s not fair. I bet nobody has ever asked you if you’re related to James Simons."

"Wow, nerd. I like you already." Jemma wanted to kick herself mentally as she struggled to continue, "but actually they’re not even the same word. My surname has double m in it."

Bobbi didn’t make any comment on what she heard, or what she didn’t. She hummed and fell silent for a while. "It’s quite unique."

"So is the name 'Bobbi'." Jemma blurted out again, "This is usually short for—"

"Roberta, I know. People point this out for me all the time like I really need the reminder." Bobbi’s trademark sarcasm spilled again.

Jemma put much effort to restrain herself from saying something embarrassing. Again.

 

They made it to the cafeteria in complete-but-not-awkward-at-all silence.

After observing the surrounding for ten seconds (ignoring more stare), Jemma moved toward the trays.

"Hey, can’t wait to run away from me?" Somebody way stronger than she looked grabbed her arm. Beside her, Bobbi crooked an eyebrow, pretending to be offended.

"Trust me, you don’t want to sit with me." Jemma shook her head with mockery. She looked over her shoulder nervously. Unsurprisingly, the palest was sitting in the darkest corner, eyeing their direction.

"If you’re worrying about Lincoln Slade, don’t." Bobbi curled her lips and took two trays, even raising her volume a little bit on purpose. "He’s just a coward, too afraid to start anything in someplace this public." She commented with contempt as she shot him a daring look.

They took the lunch and sat down. Bobbi was enjoying her meal, but Jemma couldn’t help but glimpse Slade, who continued to stare at her with immense intrigue, every few minutes and looked away, flustered.

A hand covered hers. She froze.

The hand was tender in most part, but calloused around the palm, thus rough to the touch, but this is the furthest thing from Jemma’s mind. She felt like she was a deer paralyzed by the headlights, watching everything happen stiffly.

"I know it’s been a rough morning, Jemma, to try to fit in a new community just to discover they’re not as friendly as ones you used to know." Bobbi said softly, her thumb circling the back of her hand gently, "But I promise you this won’t happen again, okay? I’ll ask them to give you some space and to stop those pranks that mean absolutely no harm. They’re just boring and curious. I’m sure you’ll win popularity around here."

Jemma swallowed her doubt about how exactly she could pull that and opened her mouth just to find she couldn't say anything else. "Thank you."

"Don’t worry, everything’s gonna be alright." Bobbi scooped her yogurt and pointed at Jemma with the end of the spoon, "you should worry about what’s next. What do you have this afternoon?"

Jemma tiled her head, searching her memory, "Math and World History, I think."

Bobbi choked on her yogurt. "You’re a senior?"

"Hey, that’s not fair!" Jemma protested and glared at her with her meanest effort, the latter looking somehow sheepish, "not everyone can be so… Russian like you." She gestured toward Bobbi, who looked clearly higher than her even when they were sitting.

Bobbi detectably paused in her swallowing. She scooped another one calmly, with less amount this time in case of any other accident. "I know you’re more… down to earth." This expression drew a hardly suppressed smile from Jemma. Bobbi coughed, looking a little more serious, "but to be honest, not all Russians are these tall."

Jemma’s curiosity was aroused but she wasn’t someone to sniff around, and Bobbi’s look made her abandon this idea even more quickly.

They finished their lunch and put away the trays. Bobbi sent another challenged look at Slade, walking out of the cafeteria with Jemma together, one arm around her waist protectively.


	3. (He deserves this. Don't tell me otherwise.)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So they had to go home late. So Jemma was alone and Slade gangs were iching for trouble.
> 
> And soooooooooooo they got their asses kicked wonderfully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really enjoyed writing this chapter lol it's so satisfying. You guys totally should try stress writing sometimes.
> 
> But I had a hard time writing the fight scene though. I've been studying Bobbi's fighting moves ever since I fell in love with her (which is a long time ago) but she's never ceased to amaze me. I looked into AOS tv shows and many comics. She fights gracefully and dynamically, but with her own style. Even a simple back kick drawn by the same artist, Bobbi's would look so much different from Natasha's (in Secret Avengers v2 #6-7 in case you're wondering but I'm not so sure you are really wondering, if you know what I mean... I'll just shut up then) and they are both a thing of beauty. But I'm really clumsy in words so forgive me if I can't show you Bobbi's kickassary through my expression... Really sorry.

It started out a little roughly, but to Jemma’s surprise, in the next three weeks, things went smoothly. Her father dropped her at school every day without getting into any trouble on the road. The pranks everyone pulled happened less frequently from the second day here and disappeared eventually. She was not very active on classes, but she got good grades for her assignment, especially biology and math, earning some favor from teacher and a friendly title "nerd".  
  
She even made some new friends. Leo, a boy who always compete with him with his best effort on physics, was actually British, too, but he moved to America when he was much younger and spoke with barely detectable accent. Brunn from the fencing class always wore two blonde ponytails and a smirk as if she was up to mischief right before she struck Jemma down. Henry, her project partner in biology, often packed the equipments for her. He even left a box of homemade cake in the shape of blood cells on her desk.  
  
Of course, she saw Bobbi most frequently. They had almost identical timetable for classes, except Bobbi chose gymnastic and swimming for P.E. class. Other than that, they showed up at the same classroom for the same class. They may sat apart, but it didn’t stop them from exchanging grimaces from two rolls away when Mr. Hewlett mentioned _"Kamikaze"_ with his trademark smile. They often had lunch together or joined each other at tennis after class and talked more.  
  
Maybe Bobbi’s talkativeness had somehow managed to get to Jemma. She felt like what she had spoken in the past three week was more than that of in past seventeen years.  
  
"Today was too fantastic to stop short. Do you have any plans tonight?" Bobbi was a little out of breath as she snatched the water bottle back from Jemma, "save me some of these, you dork."  
  
Their routine tennis game lasted longer than usual. It was over seven when they left the gym. The sun was low on the horizon, a ray of violate surrounding the peaks of the hills in distance, almost too beautiful to be real.  
  
Jemma snorted as she wiped her head with a towel. "Whatever. But it’s fine. My dad happens to have a board meeting today. He’s supposed to be late to pick me up."  
  
"If I remember correctly, you live not far from me. Why don’t you just walk home?" Bobbi sat on the steps in front of the school gate and looked up at Jemma, perplexed.  
  
Jemma shrugged. "My mom passed away in a car crash when I was little. I guess he doesn’t want that thing happen again."  
  
Bobbi’s eye widened in realization. "Oh my god, I’m so sorry, Jemma. I didn’t mean to—"  
  
"It’s okay. I’m used to it." Jemma waved half-heartedly. "I could barely remember her at that age. People always ask me 'you must be really sad' and I always nod. But the fact is, I didn’t even know her enough to be sad."  
  
Bobbi stared at her, looking almost amused. "You know, I grew up in a single-parent family as well. My dad left when I was little. My mom raised me and my brother."  
  
Jemma looked down at Bobbi, who spoke casually as if it was just "my dad went out doing grocery shopping". "Left? Do you mean—"  
  
"No, he’s not dead, if that’s what you’re asking. But he disappeared in our lives. Wanting to steer clear of us, from what I’ve heard." Bobbi took a gulp of water and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "I don’t remember much about him, too, except, of course, the fact that he abandoned us."  
  
She wrapped herself up in her arms, staring at the setting sun. "It’s not as horrible as people described, being raised by a single mom. I still have her, at least, and my little brother." A gentle smile appeared on the corner of her mouth. "Ben’s a troublemaker—I was asked for as a parent several times after he’d started another fight. In secret, of course. It’s even a miracle for him to graduate from primary school without getting expelled." She sighed. "I always feel like he takes it harder than me, our father not being able to be there, even he was much younger when that happened. I did my best to protect him."  
  
"And I’m sure you’ve done a great job." Jemma sat down next to her as well, "he’s lucky to have a sister like you."  
  
She felt Bobbi tense beside her. "Not enough."  
  
The phone in Jemma’s pocket suddenly rang. She picked up and listened to the other end, face hard to read.  
  
She hung up in less than a minute, pinning the bridge of her nose. "Bloody hell."  
  
"Something wrong?" Bobbi asked with concern.  
  
"No, it’s not a big deal, actually." Jemma laughed dryly, "it’s just something’s up in Dad’s company and he’s on his way to Seattle to settle the affairs. He didn’t elaborate, but based on my experience, he won’t be back for at least two weeks."  
  
"Do you have anyone else in your house? What about keys?"  
  
"I have keys, but there’s no other. But it’s alright, really. He goes away for business and leaves me home alone all the time." Jemma quickly assured Bobbi.  
  
"My home is in the same direction as yours. Let me walk you there." Bobbi proposed.  
  
Jemma chuckled. "Are you trying to prove to me that Calvary never dies in America, Ms Morse?"  
  
"Depends. Do you really want me to answer this?" Bobbi laughed as well, but was interrupted by a familiar voice.  
  
"Oh, what a coincident you haven’t left, Ms Morse." Dr. Calvin called out from behind. Bobbi turned about and saluted to the senior woman with her bottle. "You can come to my office to pick up your assignment. I changed a few places to make it more logical."  
  
"On my way, Wilma." Bobbi stood up and flashed Jemma a bright smile. "You can go ahead, Simmons. I’m surely gonna catch up with you later."  
  
"No problem."  
  
  
  
The sun was completely down and there were no street lamps on the side of the road. There were only hallway lights from an occasional resident. Apparently, riding through here on a car was completely different from walking the same path. Jemma clutched to the straps of her bag, wanting to speed up and complete the journey as fast as possible, but not too fast for Bobbi to catch on, staying on a rather awkward pace.  
  
It was definitely true when people say "when it rains it pours". Jemma saw a familiar white shadow when she turned around on the next corner, gathering with his disreputable company in front of a 7-11, most of them wielding a baseball bat.  
  
That was never a good sign.  
  
Slade had been behaving lately, never starting any head-on clash, but always swirling around Jemma like a haunted ghost, reminding her his existence with a creepy smile once in a while. But that was back in the campus, a closed society. He would act with scruples. Out here, nobody knew how far he could go.  
  
Jemma moved backward promptly, a decision that she regretted seconds later, but judging from an outburst of laughter that sent Jemma into panic, Slade had already seen her and was walking toward her.  
  
Jemma hadn’t finished cursing herself for leaving practically the only light in miles when she found herself surrounded by the gang. There were eight of them, including Slade, and six of them were carrying bats that was apparently used to rob the convenience store.  
  
"Well, well, isn’t this our almighty Her majesty." Slade clapped his hands in his usual satirical tone. "How come you would visit this… slum?"  
  
"Bugger off." Jemma tried her best to not show any tremble in her voice but failed miserably.  
  
"Don’t worry, Your Majesty. We won’t hurt you — for now." Slade took a step closer, "but we do feel the need to submit a formal application, for your… how should I put it, royal jewelry."  
  
Jemma’s heartbeat notably picked up. "I don’t have any money on me."  
  
"Of course you would say that." Jemma squeaked and jumped away as Slade’s hand suddenly fell on her shoulder. "But at least you should convince us peasants, yes?"  
  
"I’m only going to say this once, so listen closely." Jemma felt the hand slipping off and a voice calmed her down almost instantly. She let out a breath she didn’t realize was holding. Things happened too fast for her to remember Bobbi was right behind her, although she was not sure if it would make any difference. "Stay. Away. From. Her."  
  
The lights were dim, but Jemma could swear the look of smug satisfaction faded from Slade’s face. "Barbara. For a goddess, you’re way too invested in what happens among mortals."  
  
"I was never a goddess, let along ’your goddess'." Bobbi spat, "even if it’s true, I’m the goddess of death at most. Now beat it with your goons, or I may have to take you all back to hell, where you come from."  
  
Jemma was impressed by the sincerity in Slade’s compliment, though she doubted it was exactly where Bobbi’s disgust came from. Slade seemed undisturbed, sighing like it was really a shame. "Barbara, I’ve always hoped we don’t have to come to this—"  
  
Bang.  
  
Everyone was taken aback by the deafening sound, especially for Slade’s muscles, who were almost too shocked to catch their boss, forced back by a punch on the jaw, in time. He stretched for a while, painfully, and spat blood on the ground.  
  
"God, you have absolutely no idea how long I’ve been waiting to do this to you." Bobbi seemed way too enthusiastic for someone who was surrounded by muscular boys holding up their bats. She just pushed Jemma further behind her, a bright smile forming on her face, "I told you I’m different now, but your ego won’t allow you to believe it. And now you and your boys have to pay for that."  
  
She grabbed the first goon in the wrist and caught the baseball bat falling out of his hand, swinging to hit the side of his head. Dropping the bat, left hand batting away a fist belong to the only one without a bat, she used the junction between the thumb and index finger on her right hand to hit him on the neck, dropping her hand to grab his wrists and pull them toward her, turning to kick the third one on the abdomen and throwing away the second one. Picking up the baseball bat, she took the bat from the fourth one and use it to block two punches, right arms wring his left one as she kneed him hard on the belly right before she tripped him with the same leg and push him on the floor altogether. She crossed her two bats in front of her face to block a bat strike coming from above and threw it sideways, hitting the fifth one on his back while he almost lost his balance, jumping over him while dragging one of his limb with her, overarm throwing him as she landed. The sixth and the seventh were smart enough to turn to the opposite direction and run for their lives, but they wouldn’t get away so easily. Bobbi threw out two baseball bats in her hands. One hit the target at the back of his head and propelled him to fall forward while the other missed. She was in no rush to carry on the hunt, just shrugged indifferently as she made her way toward a shocking (which said a lot, considering normally he didn’t have much facial expression) Slade.  
  
It lasted less than half a minute.  
  
"Tell me, Lincoln Slade," Bobbi grabbed him by the collar, whispering. Jemma couldn’t see her face, but it wasn’t that hard to imagine the smugness on her face, "deep inside your pathetic little heart, are you ever regretting that you’ve messed with the wrong person, even in the slightest?"  
  
Bobbi pushed him aside contemptuously without waiting for his answer and returned to Jemma, who was equally shocked, taking her hand. She walked out of here stepping on the bodies on the ground on purpose.  
  
  
  
"I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, because I am truly grateful, but _what the hell happened back there?!"_  
  
Bobbi waved like it was nothing, but the lights shone her pride clearly. "I do yoga."  
  
"Really?" Jemma was surprised.  
  
"Yes."  
  
Jemma stared at her in disbelief.  
  
Bobbi sighed. "I do do yoga, but of course it’s not because of that, Jemma. It’s called sarcasm."  
  
"…Oh." Jemma felt silly, but she was still curious, "But how did you learn all these… impressive moves?"  
  
"That’s simple. I’m an alien replacing a secret agent working for a shadow government agency, lurking in this little town, arranging to brainwash the human our people come in peace when they are here to invade the earth." Bobbi replied with a fake serious tone.  
  
"You just love to make fun of me." Jemma complained.  
  
"Only because you’re so gullible." Bobbi retorted, tightened her grip on Jemma’s waist, "Now hurry up, I’m famished. I got myself into some petty strife with Ben yesterday and he threatened to eat my dinner if I get home too late."  
  
"If you are in a hurry, I am fully able to go home on my own." Jemma put much effort to keep up with Bobbi’s quickened steps.  
  
"What? Oh, no way. You’re coming to my home with me."  
  
Jemma stopped all of a sudden and just froze. Bobbi turned and tried to drag her in astonishment, but she didn’t move an inch. "What?!"  
  
"Come on, Jemma, Slade and his goons are jerks, not idiots, although I wish they were. Everyone in school knows there’s a British girl goes to school in her daddy’s fancy car. Do you honestly believe he didn’t notice you were walking home today? I don’t think you’d like to stay in a house surrounded by hooligans." Bobbi dragged Jemma with amazing strength, and she was forced to move, "Don’t worry, you can crush on my room. I always want to try the new couch anyway."  
  
Jemma felt her throat went dry. "But…"  
  
"Hey, I did promise you I won’t let you fall victim to Slade, right? He’s a good-for-nothing essentially, sure, but he and his family is still painfully powerful in this region, whether you like it or not." Bobbi gave Jemma’s hand a reassuring squeeze, "My family are nice. They’ll understand."  
  
Jemma obviously had no room for argument. She murmured a barely audible "thank you", allowing herself to be dragged toward Morse’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you're wondering (I really should stop saying that. It feels stupid), Jemma's befriended Leo Fitz, I'm sure y'all can recognize, Brunnhilde aka Valkyrie, Henry Hayes. (a Deathlok appeared in ANAD's Agents of SHIELD, who transformed Jemma into a Deathlok to save her life with Bobbi's help. Long story)
> 
> I wrote some explaination (sort of) for Bobbi's family in the second part of this collection "Smell Like A Rose, Pierce Like A Thron". You can go check it out their if you're interested.
> 
> And about Jemma's parents, I can't really remember where I got these ideas from because I really remember Jemma being raised by single-parent. But I stand corrected with credible source. If it's not canon, I will still decide to write it this way for plot's sake. But I'm damn sure Bobbi is, though. She has a really complicated family relationship, which of course I'm going to explore in the coming chapters.
> 
> Did you guys get my Secret Invasion reference? No? Okay...
> 
> As for Dr. Calvin, she has always played an important role in Bobbi's life. Wilma is Bobbi's mentor, her pillar of strength, her lighthouse, and her most long-term best friend depite their difference in age. They share the same enthusiasm in science as well as decent morality. She always encourages Bobbi to follow her heart, to do the right thing no matter how hard it would be. She taught Bobbi to be strong and feminist and be her own hero. She is one of Bobbi's non-power friends, but she is super in her own way.
> 
> Dr. Wilma Calvin was murdered by her son Percy in "50 Years of SHIELD: Mockingbird #1". She has been "a longtime civil right activist, a champion of science, a feminist, a dedicated single parent, and a patriot." May she rest in peace.


End file.
